One of your most memorable life and active times will be during your preschool years. What you have learned in the preschool environment can greatly impact your life. This includes the physical development during your preschool years. Preschoolers will need plenty of time for movement and active play.
You must remember that language and social skills can develop during active play. While the preschoolers are in your preschool environment, you want to ensure they can interact and connect. Take the opportunity to observe the preschoolers while they are playing. You get to gather information about their development.
Besides providing knowledge to preschoolers through books, it is important to provide them with opportunities to engage in physical activities to build their physical development. Whether indoor or outdoor, your program should include physical activities for at least 1 hour. You can fill thirty minutes with structured activities, such as games, while the other thirty minutes can be filled with unstructured activities.
Indoor of Preschool Environment: Embedding Physical Activity in Your Program
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Physical activity should be part of your program instead of treating it as a recess activity. Physical activities allow preschoolers to let out their energy, practice their basic skills, and learn new ones. Gross and fine motor skills are important for children. It helps to develop their physical development.
Activities that can be done in your preschool environment include providing them an opportunity to play pretend and use blocks or other items to build or balance the object. Use different materials to draw or write. Set up a discovery learning center to let preschoolers explore and manipulate different items.
While having story time with your preschoolers. You can encourage them to have a role play and imitate the story characters’ movements and sounds. During meal time, you can encourage children to practice opening food containers, passing food around to other preschoolers, and cleaning up the table.
Consider having music and allowing the children to have a dance party. You will need active, a constant movement for dancing. You can let preschoolers practice coordination, flexibility and strength. It can increase their range of motion. You will need some space, so adjust the furniture in the classroom. You can encourage them by letting them choose their favorite songs or type of music. Besides that, you can also consider arranging some “workout time” to let the children do some simple exercise. You can incorporate the music with exercise.
Put in some imagination and think out of the box to create different fun activities. It will let the children be curious and active throughout the day. You can create an indoor basketball game by crumpling newspapers into a “ball” shape and throw into a box or basket. But ensure that the environment is safe.
Supporting The Physical Development In Preschool Environment
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Children with special needs may face difficulties during physical activities. If you need to work with these children, you will need to adjust your curriculum, environment, and classroom activities to let them participate with the others. You will need to consider how your existing practices can help them to participate in your physical development.
When creating a preschool environment to support your children’s physical development, you must consider the transitions from one activity to another, such as lunch, potty time, free play time, naptime, or even school events. You will need to consider supporting physical development during the transitions between these activities.
Children with special needs may have different motor development conditions, including physical and cognitive disabilities or hyperactivity disorder. They may have a specific plan to help them meet their goals or objectives. They will need some changes to adapt to the curriculum, classroom, and preschool activities. They may need certain services to access the preschool environment and school events fully.
Children with physical disabilities may face difficulties with motor coordination and muscle strength. Some may be able to participate in the activities with minimal help or without any. At the same time, some may need certain support or even assistive technology, such as wheelchairs or communication devices, to help them explore their preschool environment and interact with other preschoolers. You will need to provide certain support according to the condition of the children with special needs to help them participate in your physical activities.
Promoting Sensory Discovery In Preschool Environment
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Most of us are familiar with the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Another two more senses will be proprioceptive and vestibular. Proprioceptive sensory receptors can be found in muscles or other connective tissues. It helps increase the body’s awareness and helps with motor control. Vestibular sensory receptors can be found in the inner ear. They can help to determine the direction and speed of a movement. Children can develop these seven senses in the preschool environment.
A preschool environment can help preschoolers to engage with multiple senses. Preschoolers can stimulate many senses by using the computer. They can listen, watch and direct while using the computer. Music and movement are another activity that can use multiple senses. They listen to the music and dance accordingly or play an instrument. Preschoolers can explore their taste sense through food preparation and cooking.
Sensory activities help to develop preschoolers’ senses. You can develop it by using a sensory table. You can fill the sensory table with many items and allow the preschooler to explore by sorting, digging, and pouring. You can change and rotate the times regularly. You do not necessarily need a sensory table. You can use containers or plastic boxes to replace the sensory table.
Children tend to build up their knowledge, skill, and physical development at this young age. Creating a preschool environment that supports physical development helps them build up easier and faster. Consider all the factors in your preschool environment to create one that can fully support the need of preschoolers.
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